Stephen K. Epstein

TL;DR: A growing body of data suggests that ED crowding is associated both with objective clinical endpoints, such as mortality, as well as clinically important processes of care,such as time to treatment for patients with time-sensitive conditions such as pneumonia.

TL;DR: Mortality within 30 days of an ED visit appears to have declined among Medicare beneficiaries receiving ED care in the United States, particularly for patients with the highest severity of illness, even as fewer patients are being admitted from anED visit.

TL;DR: Time intervals and patient counts are emerging as the most promising tools for measuring flow and nonflow (i.e., crowding), respectively and standardized definitions of time intervals (flow) and numerical counts (nonflow) will assist with validation of these metrics across multiple sites and clarify which options emerge as the metrics of choice in this "crowded" field of measures.

TL;DR: A direct association between high levels of ED crowding and risk of preventable medical errors is identified, with most PMEs occurring at the highest crowding level.

TL;DR: An emergency department (ED) work score could be used by public health officials to direct ambulance traffic based on an objective measure of ED status and to track ED conditions over time and was successfully developed and internally validated.